Jul

1st

adding QR codes to your scrapbook pages

We see them everywhere from magazines to business cards to packaging, but did you know that QR Codes – those funky black + white square codes – can be a super fun way to add video footage and more to your scrapbook pages? Imagine being able to see a video of your son pitching his first inning while looking at a page from his baseball game. Or think about the idea of viewing an entire slideshow of photos from an event while flipping through your album – awesome, right? Today I’m going to share just a few tips on how to create a QR Code so you can use it in your scrapbooks … from your traditional pages to digital and even in the Project Life® App!

First things first – Creating your QR Code

In order to get started, you’ll need to decide on a few things:

What content you want to add to your page (video, slideshow, etc)

Where you are going to “store” the content so you can get a URL to create the QR Code with (YouTube, Dropbox, etc)

Where you will create your QR Code (a quick Google search for QR Code Generator will give you plenty of options)

How will you view the content on your page once the QR Code is created? You’ll need a QR Code Scanner on your smartphone (a quick search in the app store will give you plenty of options)

For my example, I’ve decided I want to include a short video and I am going store it in Dropbox. I created a folder just for QR Codes and content to make it super easy to keep things straight. And I created 2 subfolders … one for the generated codes (that will be downloaded once they are created) and one for content (where I will store the actual files that will be linked to the codes). Next you’ll want to find the URL for the file that you want your QR Code to link to. In this case, I navigated to the file in Dropbox, clicked on the “share” button (on the far right), and a pop-up window appeared with the URL to copy.

Once you have the URL copied, head to the QR Code generator of your choice (I’m using http://goqr.me) to create the unique code. You’ll see on the left that there are several types of “input” sources with which to create the code. For my purposes, I selected the little globe to represent that I would be using a URL and then I pasted the link under the box for website address.

After you’ve entered the URL information, you’ll see the live preview for your newly created QR Code to the right – YAY! All you need to do from here is click the download button underneath the code so it will download to your desktop (or wherever you have your downloads save to automatically). Please note that the QR Code generator that I’m using gives you lots of options to change color and size and even gives you the option of multiple file types to download. The only variables that I changed are the size (I download mine at 600 pixels to allow for resizing) and I downloaded the code as a JPEG file (for easy use when including it in my pages).

You should now have a QR Code on your desktop to include in your scrapbook that, when scanned with a QR Code Reader/Scanner, will pull up the video footage that you created the link to! As I mentioned before, I created a folder in Dropbox where I store my downloaded QR Codes … This will make it easy when I want to include the code on a page that I create in the Project Life App. I also name my QR Codes to correspond with the content that they open so it’s easy to tell them apart from each other {in this case I’ve saved it as CougarFirstPitch.jpg}.

Next Steps – Using your QR Code on a Layout

Once you’ve got your QR Code, it’s time to decide how you want to include it on your layout. Below are some tips on including your code in physical pages, digital pages, and even including it in the Project Life App!

Physical Pages:

The quickest, easiest way to include a QR Code in your physical album is to simply print and trim the code and pop it into one of the pockets of your layout! As I mentioned earlier, I downloaded the QR Code at 600 x 600 pixels, but that’s going to print way too big to slip into a 3×4 pocket – or even a 4×6 pocket! I find that a size of anywhere from 150-300 pixels is just about right for printing.

In order to resize, you’ll want to open your downloaded QR Code in a photo-editing software (I am using Photoshop CS6 here, but Photoshop Elements also works well. I have also resized using Preview on my Mac). In Photoshop, choose Image> Image Size and then change the pixels from 600 to 200 (or somewhere around that) in the pop-up window and click OK. Then be sure to save your resized QR Code – I usually keep the same filename and then add the size to the end {so, in this case, I’ve saved it as CougarFirstPitch200.jpg}.

Now that it is resized you can send it directly to your printer, trim it down square, and add it to a journaling or filler card or print on cardstock and trim down to the size of the pocket you want to include it in … easy peasy!

Digital Pages:

Please note: This is not meant to be a full tutorial on creating digital scrapbook pages but rather a quick overview of how you can use a QR Code within your pages.

For this example, I’ve created a page using our Design A template (which is a free download) and the Baseball Themed Cards. After adding my photos, cards, and text, I left one “pocket” open for the QR Code. For this first page, all I did was open the QR Code that I had downloaded and dragged it on top of the empty pocket. Then I added text underneath it so whoever was looking at the page would know what action would take place when scanning the code. And since the pocket mask on the template was orange, I went ahead and recolored it to white so it would coordinate with the rest of the page. The completed page looks like this:

Another way to do this would be to add the QR Code onto one of the pre-designed cards from any of our kits – which will also be the start to using the QR Code in the Project Life App. You would do this by opening the digital card file that you want to use, dragging the QR Code on top of it, adding any text you want to use, and then saving the card with the code included. My completed card looks like this:

And adding it into my page gives a final result of this:

Once you have your page completed, you can print from home (8×8 size will print on a standard sized printer), upload to your favorite online printer, or import it directly to the Project Life App to print from there!

Project Life App Pages:

Please note: This is not meant to be a full tutorial on creating scrapbook pages in the Project Life App, but rather a quick overview of how you can use a QR Code within your pages.

I originally tried to just save the downloaded QR Code in Dropbox and add it to one of the pockets in the app, but since the app uses the image to fill the space and there is no type of “bleed” or extra white space around the code when it’s downloaded, it didn’t produce the results I was hoping for. That said, there are still a few ways to get great results when using QR Codes in the Project Life App.

The first solution is to create a “blank” card using Photoshop or another program were you can import an image (the QR Code), add text, and save the final file as a .jpg that can be saved in Dropbox (or another cloud service you have linked to the Project Life App) and then add to your page as an image. To do that I would create a new 3 x 4 document, add my code and text to it, and then save it. Here is what it looks like in Photoshop:

And when I add it to my page in the App using Dropbox:

The second solution is to use one of the pre-designed cards, add the QR Code and text in Photoshop (like we did in the sample for the digital page), save it to Dropbox, and then add it to your page in the app as an image.

A few quick adjustments (I changed the background to light grey for better viewing here in this post and swapped a few of the cards for better balance) and the completed page looks like this:

The third solution for using the app is really for printing purposes. You would complete the page in Photoshop as described earlier and save the final .jpg image in Dropbox. Then you would go to the Project Life App on your device, click on the “photo collage” (orange) section, click on the upper left corner to show all of the templates, and select 12 x 12. Once you have selected 12 x 12, you would click on the image button in the upper right corner and navigate to your completed page in Dropbox. Once you add the completed layout it will save in your Project Life App library and can be included in your next print order directly through the app!

As you can see, there are tons of ways you can incorporate QR Codes into your scrapbook pages to really bring them to life. It’s certainly not necessary but can be such a fun twist to include more of the story or event than ever before. Just like so many other things we share, this post is meant to inspire and give you options – regardless of how you choose to document. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about the possibilities!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years now, but your detailed description gave me the impetus to do it. Thank you! Once I got the process down, it’s so incredibly easy!! Love it! Now I just need to go back through my years of scrapbooks and videos and add these codes to my albums.

I used a few qr codes in a calendar I did & I used the scanner app you suggested. All my codes scan, but other people have told me several don’t work. Any idea why & how I can make sure they will work? Getting ready to reprint the calendar & I want to correct the problem. Appreciate any help you can offer.

I’ve been using the app “Pic Stitch” for these, because any collage boxes you leave blank are exported as white space. I’ll choose a 3×4 aspect ration, add the QR code in one square, leave the other(s) blank, and export it with the white space. Then it drops right into my PL app! I’ve also been using this method for adding one or two vertical photos in an all-horizontal layout.